"Some of my students are geniuses. They come up with things that are unlike anything else anywhere," said Guthrie, a Timbergrove Manor resident who got used to the convenience of local manufacturing when he worked as an assistant designer at Mansoor Scott in San Francisco.

"The production facility I worked with every day was just across the parking lot," he said. "When I started designing here, my whole goal was to do everything locally."

Guthrie designs contemporary womenswear at his studio, a converted condominium in the Galleria area.

He is just a short distance to his manufacturer in the Westchase area, where he supervises the assembly of his collection.

"I can go out on the shop floor and look at a seam; if it's not right, I can fix it then," he said.

On July 13, Guthrie will team with another champion of local manufacturing, gloves designer Damari Rubio, when they pair their latest work with eyewear in a trunk show at Focus - Refined Eye Care in Montrose.

"I'm very controlling when it comes to tailoring," said Rubio, who became friends with Guthrie at HCC.

Both of them were unconventional students, with Rubio not following a degree plan and Guthrie going from a successful career as an IT consultant in retail sales, chain management and oil and gas.

Both of them learned to sew as youngsters.

"I grew up with a mother who made mine and my sister's clothes," said Guthrie. "I started sewing and patterning when I was 15."

His father's job in the oil industry took their family to Ecuador, Malaysia and Mexico, before they settled in Bryan/College Station for Guthrie's teenage years.

While attending A&M Consolidated High School, where he graduated in 1988, Guthrie said, "Houston was my playground, so I got to see how cool kids dressed here. There was an underground movement that pushed the boundaries of fashion, making it their very own. I embrace that part of Houston as a fashion mecca."

In 1992, Guthrie graduated with a bachelor of arts in international business and business law with a minor in French from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Next, he earned a master of science in instructional technology (education) from the University of Houston-Clear Lake, while also taking fashion courses at HCC.

"We sat next to each other in sketching class in 2007," said Rubio. "Steve is such a funny guy. I understand his humor, so we clicked."

Rubio traveled internationally with her job as the regional director for a hotel chain, so she often bought gloves from other countries as presents for her sisters.

"They were easy to pack," she said. "Vintage gloves were definitely my inspiration, but vintage gloves are so small. Women's hands were smaller, plus the leather would shrink."

Two years ago, Rubio launched Damari in west Houston. The trunk show will include year-round fitness gloves as well as a preview of her fall collection, for both men and women.

Guthrie debuted as a fashion designer in 2009, under the name 4thWard, by creating custom cocktail and formal attire for local and national clients.

His use of alternative and renewable fabrics produced looks that were not only one-of-a-kind art pieces, but also practical and wearable. His focus is to produce well-made, classic garments using local resources that will continue to grow the fashion industry in Houston.

"My 'rockabilly' aesthetic is a modern take on bad girls from a more recent era. Oddly enough, I grew up listening to Patsy Cline and Roy Orbison, who I adored," he said.